below: Preening and posing or just walking past. Saturday afternoon in Graffiti Alley.

below: It comes with words, a quote from Al Capone: “You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun, then you can with a kind word alone”. A mural by Madmaxxoner

below: A series of urban ninja squadron stickers on a pole

below: A grey face on a door, part of a mural by elicser

below: Square face with a four pointed crown, drawn on orange

below: So we meet alley drinking in fact(?) at 2 pm on a Teusday (sic Tuesday) it’s cool(?) and I have a half size bottle of wine some of us are in love and some us can’t be. We break off spinning in all directions and haven’t stopped since. And on top of it all is a paranoid sticker in his pink briefs. Make of it what you will.

below: Posing at the end of the alley

below: Set-up for a selfie

below: More of someone else’s selfie, this one in the partial darkness.

below: Smoke break

below: An uber5000 painting of blue cat painting a yellow birdie with a predatory camera bearing down on them.

There were many reporters with their cameramen at the site this morning. It was rumoured that Mayor John Tory was coming. I had an appointment, which is why I was in the area, so I couldn’t stay. As it turned out, both Tory and Kathleen Wynne (Ontario Premier) paid the memorial wall a visit.

Shorter day light hours + autumn weather (no snow yet!) = an evening of playing with light and shadow. I came out of the subway at Queen station and decide to “chase the light”. It was a perfect evening for a walk and I wanted to make it last as long as possible. For the most part I stayed on Queen Street although I will admit to straying onto Shuter for a block or two. It’s not the prettiest part of the city but every place has potential, from a photographic perspective anyhow.

below: The new (replacement) pedestrian walkway over Queen Street that will link the Eaton Centre with The Bay.

below: City reflections in both glass and polished stone.

below: The curve of street car wires at Queen and Church. A wall of peeling paint, as well as a ghost sign, provides the backdrop

below: The east wall of St. Michaels Cathedral (RC) with reflected light, as seen across a construction site.

below: The same church from a slightly different angle.

below: Angels

below: Pigeons, old Bell phones and the Moss Park Discount Store. Not so much light here but I liked the wall.

below: A long way from home.

below: A large double billboard is black beside the old building. The building is at the corner of Ontario Street and Brigden Place. It was built in 1911 as a 4 1/2 storey warehouse for the Newell Company and their Dominion Envelope Company. It was one of three buildings that they owned in the area. After WW2 the building was purchased by J.D. Carrier Shoe Company (the ghost sign!). Today it has been renovated as lofts and studios.

below: A small section of the back of the Moss Park Armoury, a Canadian Forces building constructed in the 1960’s.

below: A quick break from chasing light…. you never know what you’re going to encounter downtown, and of course you have to stop and take advantage of the opportunities when they arise, so here we have a slight diversion! I’m going to assume that the background of their pictures is much better than the background of this picture!

below: As evening falls, the lights come on in the bus shelters.
You can thank (or curse) Astral Media for that.

below: King Street and Queen Street merge just before they pass over the Don River and the Don Valley Parkway. The green railing in the photo below is on the bridge over the DVP, the buildings and cranes are on the other side of the river.

below: Upstairs, downstairs. Looking west along King Street from the Don River.

Once the light fades beyond a certain point, contrast is limited and dullness creeps into the resulting photos. It’s too late for well lit photos and too early for pictures of city lights. But it’s a great time to stop and find some dinner!

Rob Ford
City councillor and former Mayor of Toronto
May 1969 – March 2016,
Funeral procession from City Hall to St. James Cathedral, 30 March

below: For two days Rob Ford lay in repose at City Hall where people could pay their respects. And many did. Yesterday, the line up wound around the corner of City Hall as people waited their turn. Some people loved him; some people hated him. Possibly there were those who were indifferent.

This morning there was a short procession from City Hall to the noontime funeral at St. James Cathedral.

below: After arriving at City Hall, Doug Ford greets the crowd.

Although the procession was scheduled to begin at 10:30, it didn’t start until close to 11:30. A group of people waited at Nathan Phillips Square including some of Rob Ford’s supporters. I overheard a conversation between two men who were discussing what they thought of politics and politicians, most of it negative. At one point they declared that all career politicians should be kicked out of office. I thought to myself, you mean guys like Rob Ford? Wasn’t he a career politician?

About 20 or so people were holding a large flag made of a couple of Canadian flags and all the provincial flags stitched together. It was a very diverse group of people, diverse in age as well as in ethnic background. They were joking about whether or not they were going to be on the front page of the ‘Sun’. We shall see!

below: A woman finds a quiet place to sit and wait.

below: The police were in position, ready to start, long before the procession began. So was the media and it was a very large media presence indeed.

below: The Toronto Fire Department had a large Canadian flag on display at Queen and Bay streets, near the beginning of the procession route.

below: Trying to keep the people, most with cameras, off the streets.

below: This guy may have been filming the crowd (and me) but he didn’t look away from his phone.

below: The crowd in front of St. James cathedral

As I was walking away from the cathedral, a woman approached me.
She pointed towards the church asked me if I knew what was going on there.

added later: I was going to discard this photo but then I noticed the man in the mask.
Who wears a mask to a funeral procession?

Winning images chosen from 97,912 photographs taken by 5,692 photographers from 131 countries.

below: Taken by Andy Rocchelli of Italy, part of his series of ‘Russian Interiors’ portraits. There were 10 photographs in the series, three of which are shown here (well, two and a half). All were of women.

below: One of the multitude of Chinese migrant laborers, a factory worker in in Yiwu China. His job is to coat polystyrene snowflakes with red powder. There are 600 factories in Yiwu and they produce 60% of the world’s Christmas decorations. Photo by Ronghui Chen, second prize winner in the Contemporary Issues category.

below: The three winning photographs from the Sports (Singles) category. The predominant photo is the second prize photo; it is a photo of Odell Beckham of the New York Giants making a one handed touchdown catch, taken by Al Bello. The winning sports photo is the one on the far left. It is a photo of Argentine football player Lionel Messi receiving the Golden Ball trophy at the World Cup in Brazil, taken by Bao Tailiang. In the middle is a picture of Philip Hughes, a cricket batsman who was hit on the head by a ball during a game, taken by Mark Metcalfe.

below: The winning photo, by Danish photographer, Mads Nissen of Jon and Alex, a gay couple, sharing an intimate moment at Alex’s home, a small apartment in St Petersburg, Russia. (It looks better in real life!)